Vivid Invest’s latest project is a stunning health and well-being focused renovation of a one bedroom flat located next to Hong Kong Island’s Sai Ying Pun MTR. The redevelopment is part of our effort to bring wellness real estate to Hong Kong using our Vivid Healthy Blueprint.
What is wellness real estate?
The Global Wellness Institute believes that real estate is the next area that will be radically transformed by the wellness movement. The built-environment has a profound impact on our health, behaviors and lifestyles. This is why wellness real estate puts human health and wellbeing at the center of conception, design, creation and redevelopment of homes and offices.
We Hong Kongers lead very busy lives. According to US health insurer Cigna (2018), Hong Kong has the fifth most stressed population globally. We only trail South Korea, Nigeria, Taiwan and the UAE. Long working hours, late night conference calls arranged by unforgiving EU and US companies and our environment are contributing factors. Especially air-, noise- and light-pollution are detrimental to our health. The overwhelming feeling is that this is out of our control. However, what we forget is the fact that we spend over 90% of our time indoors and we can often take full control of our indoor living environment.
Your home can become a platform to actively promote your health and well-being. From the air you breathe to how well you sleep and eat, your living environment can improve how you feel, how you look, how you work and how you play. Vivid Invest’s Healthy Blueprint, re-imagines your home or office as a catalyst for better health.
How do you create a healthy home?
1. Secure the home environment for optimal health
If you want to create a healthy indoor living environment, you have to start with source control. In this renovation we only used third-party-certified, green building materials, fittings and organic fabrics to limit the emission of pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including formaldehyde. The apartment also features a professional air purifier and built-in activated carbon water filter. We often complain about air pollution in Hong Kong, also because the global rise of many respiratory and chronic diseases has been traced directly to pollution. However, indoor air quality can be two to five times worse than outdoor air and you can significantly improve air quality in your home environment.
2. Create a sanctuary where you can easily relax
In this tenth floor development, Vivid Invest enlarged windows to maximize daylight and ventilation. The double-glazed windows and special frames stop the sound from the street. We chose the location of the bedroom especially to maximize noise cancellation and eradicate light pollution. Additionally, Vivid Invest installed LED mood lighting to enable melatonin management and a natural dawn simulation wake up. A natural, anti-bacterial and fungal mattress also contributes to better sleep.
Biophilic Design principles with proven health benefits have been applied throughout the apartment. We used natural building materials (wood, stone and organic fabrics), applied natural earth tone colors and installed air-purifying plants. The partial sea view of the flat contributes to this as well.
3. Choice architecture
How can your home nudge you towards a healthier lifestyle? The answer is, by applying choice architecture. The kitchen in this apartment has been designed to encourage occupants to cook. As proven by numerous studies, cooking skills are the key to eating healthier and improved diets. We equipped the kitchen with Miele appliances including an oven. Other ideas on how to incorporate choice architecture in your home are for example stand-up desks, pull-up bars or reflexology paths in the bathroom.
4. Does wellness real estate only focus on health?
Vivid Invest believes that health and sustainability should go hand in hand so a healthy home should also be a green home. Certified green building materials are oftentimes more sustainable than ordinary ones. In this development all appliances also have the highest energy and water efficiency rating to minimize the flat’s energy and water consumption.
Our modern living environment has created numerous health risks, such as pollution and environmental degradation, stress, poor diet, sedentary lifestyles and lack of physical activity.
